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kailey_luminouslibro's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
When his parents die unexpectedly, Colin goes searching for answers. He hears of a mysterious wise man who guards the entrance to a maze. Colin enters the maze, accepting the challenge to find a new country where his questions will be answered and his grief assuaged. Along an arduous journey, he meets people who have given up in despair, those who have turned to evil, and those who are willing to help him and guide him through the maze. But ultimately, Colin must answer his own heart and find the inner strength to endure.
I loved this beautiful story! It is very intense and emotional, but always full of hope. Colin goes through some terrible ordeals and suffers greatly. He sees others succumb to the darkness, but there is always some little ray of hope to light his way if he just chooses to keep moving forward.
I love how there is an element of allegory to the plot and characters (similar to Pilgrim's Progress), but it is never heavy-handed or too preachy. It feels like a gentle word of encouragement or warning, but the author doesn't beat you over the head with the moral lessons. The focus is more on Colin discovering these lessons through his journey, so the moral lessons feel natural to the story. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom in this book.
The writing style is excellent! The writing is concise and powerful. The plot moves quickly from one phase of the journey to the next. The author manages to say a great deal with just a few meaningful words. There are so many relatable insights into the human experience.
But it's not all allegory, insight, and moral lessons. The adventure is exciting, the characters are so interesting and complex, and the setting is imaginative and wild! Don't be fooled by the dorky 1970s covers; this book is beautifully written and absolute genius from start to finish!
I had put off reading this book for years, because I had built it up in my mind, and I was worried that the reality would not match my high expectations. I shouldn't have waited so long! This book exceeded my expectations and gave me a lot to think about for many years to come.
I loved this beautiful story! It is very intense and emotional, but always full of hope. Colin goes through some terrible ordeals and suffers greatly. He sees others succumb to the darkness, but there is always some little ray of hope to light his way if he just chooses to keep moving forward.
I love how there is an element of allegory to the plot and characters (similar to Pilgrim's Progress), but it is never heavy-handed or too preachy. It feels like a gentle word of encouragement or warning, but the author doesn't beat you over the head with the moral lessons. The focus is more on Colin discovering these lessons through his journey, so the moral lessons feel natural to the story. There are a lot of nuggets of wisdom in this book.
The writing style is excellent! The writing is concise and powerful. The plot moves quickly from one phase of the journey to the next. The author manages to say a great deal with just a few meaningful words. There are so many relatable insights into the human experience.
But it's not all allegory, insight, and moral lessons. The adventure is exciting, the characters are so interesting and complex, and the setting is imaginative and wild! Don't be fooled by the dorky 1970s covers; this book is beautifully written and absolute genius from start to finish!
I had put off reading this book for years, because I had built it up in my mind, and I was worried that the reality would not match my high expectations. I shouldn't have waited so long! This book exceeded my expectations and gave me a lot to think about for many years to come.
saroz162's review
2.0
Originally, I read this book when I was 11 or 12 years old, and since then, I've always remembered two things: first, the great title (I do like a nice long title), and second, the gnawing sensation that it went a little bit over my head at that time. Nearly two decades later, I decided to give it another try, along with its companion volume, The Tightrope Walker. The Maze in the Heart of the Castle is a strange meta-fictional conceit in that quotes from it, and descriptions of sequences from it, first appear in Tightrope Walker five years earlier, where Gilman treats it as the product of another author and the protagonist's favorite book. It's made out to be a sort of ur-children's book, a beautiful old tome with important allegories to return to again and again.
By actually sitting down and writing Maze for real, then, Gilman fashioned a pretty good rod for her own back. This is a very slim book, really - it's 220 pages of large print - but it's clearly written to be "weighty." The prose has a vaguely Arthurian tone that tends to be reserved for much shorter fables and legends; it's more than a little pompous in places, and there are parts where Gilman is baldly saying, "Hey kids! You should be learning something important about life here." It's not subtle at all, and it frankly lacks the engaging quality of The Phantom Tollbooth or The Last Unicorn, which I think it may be trying to emulate. (There are sequences that bring both of those earlier novels to mind.)
That said, it's not awful. It does actually pick up as it goes on and more dialogue becomes involved. There's at least one encounter that I really enjoyed - one with a character called the Conjurer. (They're all named things like that.) Overall, though, I can't shake that feeling that Gilman was trying to write a philosophical book for kids, and because she set out with that goal, the result got bogged down with its own importance. It's really too heavy for a small child - say, under 10 - but the story is too simplistic for most preteens. I can completely see, now, why it left me discomfited in my own childhood. While I had expected that to be an indicator of my own inexperience at that age - emotionally, I was a very "young" 11 or 12 - I think, really, it just showed up the limitations of the novel. I probably needed a Last Unicorn at that age (a book I never actually read as a child) - not The Maze in the Heart of the Castle.
By actually sitting down and writing Maze for real, then, Gilman fashioned a pretty good rod for her own back. This is a very slim book, really - it's 220 pages of large print - but it's clearly written to be "weighty." The prose has a vaguely Arthurian tone that tends to be reserved for much shorter fables and legends; it's more than a little pompous in places, and there are parts where Gilman is baldly saying, "Hey kids! You should be learning something important about life here." It's not subtle at all, and it frankly lacks the engaging quality of The Phantom Tollbooth or The Last Unicorn, which I think it may be trying to emulate. (There are sequences that bring both of those earlier novels to mind.)
That said, it's not awful. It does actually pick up as it goes on and more dialogue becomes involved. There's at least one encounter that I really enjoyed - one with a character called the Conjurer. (They're all named things like that.) Overall, though, I can't shake that feeling that Gilman was trying to write a philosophical book for kids, and because she set out with that goal, the result got bogged down with its own importance. It's really too heavy for a small child - say, under 10 - but the story is too simplistic for most preteens. I can completely see, now, why it left me discomfited in my own childhood. While I had expected that to be an indicator of my own inexperience at that age - emotionally, I was a very "young" 11 or 12 - I think, really, it just showed up the limitations of the novel. I probably needed a Last Unicorn at that age (a book I never actually read as a child) - not The Maze in the Heart of the Castle.
_eliza's review
5.0
One of the first fantasy books I picked up at the library when I was in 6th grade. I still love this book. I "lost" a copy last year so I could add it to my collection. The librarians forgave me as soon as I paid the lost fee :oD
thistlechaser's review
1.0
The main character was 16 years old, but he came off as half that age. The writing didn't work for me (a Goodreads reviewer described it as "an Arthurian tone", so maybe that was it), and the plot didn't hook me (the assumedly 16 year old boy's parents died and a wizard sent him on a quest to try to find the answer to why good people die). I DNFed it after one evening of reading.
fletcher's review
1.0
I don't know how my wonderful sixth grade teacher made me enjoy this book so much when I was eleven. She must have a sort of magical voice that made us love anything she read to us, because this novel is utter garbage. On the most basic level it isn't even competent. I found typos everywhere as I read, as though it hadn't even been edited. Despite the medieval setting, modern items like treadmills were mentioned in passing. There were no twists and turns, only tired cliches. The simplest solution to any problem was the one that was taken, and on the next page the protagonist would run into another obvious predicament.
It's so drenched in religious symbolism that I just found myself rolling my eyes whenever the protagonist met a new character, knowing that they would just be another representation of some deadly sin or another. The ending was anticlimactic. Even with the obvious Christian overtones, the moral was unclear. The pacing was so fast that the protagonist found a civilization, escaped prison with several other people, introduced democracy, and overthrew the monarchy in the space of 20 pages. And I was still bored. I honestly cannot find anything to like about this. I only bothered to finish it because it's so short. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone--not that anyone was looking to read this obscure thing, anyway.
#ReadDownYourBookshelf verdict: I'm absolutely getting rid of this.
It's so drenched in religious symbolism that I just found myself rolling my eyes whenever the protagonist met a new character, knowing that they would just be another representation of some deadly sin or another. The ending was anticlimactic. Even with the obvious Christian overtones, the moral was unclear. The pacing was so fast that the protagonist found a civilization, escaped prison with several other people, introduced democracy, and overthrew the monarchy in the space of 20 pages. And I was still bored. I honestly cannot find anything to like about this. I only bothered to finish it because it's so short. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone--not that anyone was looking to read this obscure thing, anyway.
#ReadDownYourBookshelf verdict: I'm absolutely getting rid of this.
harderthanjade's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
themadblonde's review
2.0
I was rather disappointed when I read this, though that may have been because my expectations were so high. _The Tightrope Walker_ is one of my fave books of all time, so when I learned that Gilman had actually written the book that saved Amelia's life, I was on fire to read it. Unfortunately, I do not feel that the author was able to convey the same magic in a book-length production of the story she told so tantalisingly in _Tightrope Walker_. It was as if a less talented, more jaded author read _Tightrope Walker_, decided that _Maze_ really needed to exist, took all the clues & put them together in a story form, but didn't succeed in really making it work. Either that or Ms. G had been pressured once too often by ardent fans & dashed this lacklustre piece off to earn some peace & quiet & a few $.
If you love _The Tightrope Walker_, read it for completeness. If you've never read TTW, go out & find a copy now!
If you love _The Tightrope Walker_, read it for completeness. If you've never read TTW, go out & find a copy now!
luann's review
4.0
Colin is sixteen, and having a difficult time coming to terms with the death of his parents. He is angry and alone, and wants to know why such a thing would happen to him. He travels to a monastery to visit his father's friend, Brother John, and ask him why this terrible thing happened. When Colin refuses to be comforted, Brother John tells him of a magician who lives in an ancient, haunted castle who may offer him something to help answer his questions. Colin finds the castle and the magician, who says he is the keeper of the maze at the heart of the castle. He makes no promises, but offers to let Colin journey through the maze if he wishes. Colin sets out on a journey that will change everything for him.
This is so different from any other Dorothy Gilman book I've read that it's really difficult to compare. If I think of it as a straightforward YA/quest/fantasy/adventure type of story, it is just okay. Nothing spectacular. The kind of story you don't mind reading, but later can't remember much except some vague details. If I think of the book as an allegory, though, with deeper meaning beyond just the surface story, I like it much more. I still don't think it's Dorothy Gilman's best ever, but I'm glad I read it.
I do think Dorothy Gilman meant for us to take more from this book than just the surface story. There are hints scattered throughout the story. This is probably the most crucial one:
"It came to him, standing there, that he could choose for himself what thoughts he might carry down this mountain with him, for if his future lay in the valleys below, then to take his past with him was to walk backward into that future, always looking over his shoulder and stumbling. There had to be something better ahead--there already was, he realized: the first green that he'd glimpsed since he rode out of the forest..."
I like that the above quote came in the middle of the story. Even after that realization, Colin still had hardships to overcome which tested his new ideas and allowed him to learn even more about himself.
This book was featured in another Gilman book, [b:The Tightrope Walker|149339|The Tightrope Walker|Dorothy Gilman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172202047s/149339.jpg|2321738]. I need to reread that now that I've read this!
This is so different from any other Dorothy Gilman book I've read that it's really difficult to compare. If I think of it as a straightforward YA/quest/fantasy/adventure type of story, it is just okay. Nothing spectacular. The kind of story you don't mind reading, but later can't remember much except some vague details. If I think of the book as an allegory, though, with deeper meaning beyond just the surface story, I like it much more. I still don't think it's Dorothy Gilman's best ever, but I'm glad I read it.
I do think Dorothy Gilman meant for us to take more from this book than just the surface story. There are hints scattered throughout the story. This is probably the most crucial one:
"It came to him, standing there, that he could choose for himself what thoughts he might carry down this mountain with him, for if his future lay in the valleys below, then to take his past with him was to walk backward into that future, always looking over his shoulder and stumbling. There had to be something better ahead--there already was, he realized: the first green that he'd glimpsed since he rode out of the forest..."
I like that the above quote came in the middle of the story. Even after that realization, Colin still had hardships to overcome which tested his new ideas and allowed him to learn even more about himself.
This book was featured in another Gilman book, [b:The Tightrope Walker|149339|The Tightrope Walker|Dorothy Gilman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172202047s/149339.jpg|2321738]. I need to reread that now that I've read this!
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